Some school officials at Colony Oak Elementary School in Ripon are reportedly unhappy with the fact that scholarships were awarded to some of its eighth graders by a representative of Central Catholic High School in Modesto.

My son sent me a commencement speech that was recently given at a high school in Pennsylvania. It was a rather lengthy speech, but if it had to be summed up in a few words, these would be them: None of us are special. While that may fly in the face of all the self-help gurus we have here in the Golden State, it is true. We are part of the world – it is not part of us.

Just the concept of Alzheimer's and dementia is something that elicits negative feelings. Nobody wants to think about what it would be like to forget who you are or the life that you lived – the very identity that you work so hard to craft during your years on this planet.